A lot of monitors operate so that you just press up to activate brightness setting, then up and down for brightness. The brightness % does appear onscreen but you don't have to go into any menus or anything. So it's one extra button press, but most laptops you have to press or hold the fn button anyway.

All three monitors I am using right now are like that. A Samsung 275t, a random BenQ and an Asus ProArt.